The Dungeoners

     I've had this idea of doing a basic cartoon for a long time of a group of dungeon adventurers who meet in a tavern, and see a notice on the bulletin board that appeals to them...

     A level 1 Thief walks into a small town, and goes to the local tavern to get a beer, and to see what happens.
     He orders a beer and sits down.
     He sees a bulletin board, and looks at the notices, but nothing looks good to him, so he continues drinking his beer, and thinks nothing of it.

     Then a Level 2 Warrior comes in, looking bashed and beat up, but he says, 'Ha, that kobold dungeon was a piece of cake.  I soloed the whole thing!"

     No one in the tavern seemed to care about anything the Warrior was saying.  After all, he was only level 2.

     Someone whispers to his friend, "He's only a Level 2, what a cocky sonofabitch."
     "Yeah, what a noob," his friend replies.

     Getting bored, the Level 1 Thief named Padamast stands up and looks at the bulletin board again.  He sees a notice he didn't see before...
     "Level 3 Dungeon.  Good xp.  Adequate Rewards.  Recommended Group of Four needed, Levels 1-3.  It is the beginning of an epic quest, so commitment required.  Talk to Rudmar The Bold at 734 Wyvern Way between the hours of 2-6 p.m."

     "Hmmm...that sounds pretty good," the thief thought to himself.  "If only I could get three others...."

     So he yelled out, "Hey...anybody want to do this quest with me?  I need a Cleric, a Magician, and a Warrior, all levels 1-3."

     Somebody yelled out, "Which quest is it?"

     "Uh...It says....'The Quest of The Forgotten Urn', the Thief replied.

     With that, everybody kind of just had a stone look on their face, and turned around.

     "I'll do it!" the Level 2 Warrior yelled out.
     "As will I," a young Magician stated.
     "I will join you, too," a middle-aged balding Level 3 cleric said.  "I could use some work."

     So, after some talk and finishing up their beers, they walked over to the quest-giver's house, which wasn't far, and knocked on the door.

     "Are you here for the quest?" a voice could be heard.

     "Yes", the thief answered, as he seemed to be a natural leader, even though he was Level One.

     "Okay, come on in....You guys look like a good squad.  I've been waiting for some time for a good group to complete this quest for me."
     Quick thinking the thief was, and said, "Well, why has it been so hard to get anybody to do this quest?"
     Rudmar The Quest-Giver said, "Oh, everybody is too high of a level to do it...there haven't been too many noobs...uh...young adventurers around lately.  Anyway, the pay is good."
     "What's the catch?"
     "Uh, there is no catch...you just need to bring me back a feather that is at the end of the dungeon."
     "Okay, we'll do it."
     "Okay."
     "We'll leave the first thing in the morning," the group said.
     "Why don't you leave at midnight?  You might catch the monsters by surprise.  Everybody goes first thing in the morning."
     "Well, okay...why the hell not?"

     So, with that...the group gathered together outside of the tavern around midnight, and set off for the dungeon, hoping to get some good xp and rewards.
     None of them understood the laughter that was going on in the tavern when the customers saw them, but the cleric said, "Don't concern yourself with those lazy fools.  Let's move on."

     So, they followed the map to the dungeon, which was a two hour walk.  None of them had horses, since they were all very low levels.

     So, they finally got to the dungeon entrance, which was just a simple cave opening in the side of a hill.

     "Yup, this is the place," the magician said, as he was the map reader.

     So, the four of them entered the dungeon with the Warrior in the lead, followed by the cleric who was ready with his mace, the Thief, and the Magician in the back.

     About ten feet in, there was a pit that looked like a man could jump across.

     "That looks easy!" the Cleric said.  "I can jump that.  I used to do long jumping all the time at my relgious college."
     With that, the cleric backed up, started to run at a tremendous pace, and looked like he was going to clear the pit, until it looked like he hit a glass or invisible wall on the other side, and then fell into the pit, and the rest of the group could hear the cleric's body being pierced by spikes, which were probably poisoned.

     "Oops", the group said.

     "Dang...now what?" the thief said.

     End of Part 1